Church finds new way to stock food bank

VALLEY CENTER  When members of Valley Center Community Church found out that the Salvation Army's local food pantry was almost empty, they raised money to restock the food bank. The church learned that purchasing pallets of food to meet monthly demand saved money.

In October the church bought two pallets of food from Temecula-based Western Eagle Foundation Food Bank and delivered them to the food pantry to gauge the need.

By the end of the month all the food from that delivery had been given away, providing just over 1,000 meals. The church set out to raise enough money to buy four pallets of food each month through the end of 2013.

After only three weeks, the church raised $5,400, enough to purchase four pallets of food every month in 2014 and in all of 2015.